US cardinal says 'Christian nations' in West must counter Islamic influx

Amid heightened tensions over ISIS-fueled terror attacks and anti-Muslim rhetoric, a prominent U.S. cardinal says Islam "wants to govern the world" and Americans must decide if they are going to reassert "the Christian origin of our own nation" in order to avoid that fate.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome-based prelate known as an outspoken conservative and critic of Pope Francis' reformist approach, said in an interview on Wednesday (July 20) that Islam is "fundamentally a form of government."

While Catholic teaching recognizes that all Abrahamic faiths worship the same God, Burke criticized Catholic leaders who, in an effort to be tolerant, have a tendency "to simply think that Islam is a religion like the Catholic faith or the Jewish faith."